Amazon seeks to expand Darlington drone delivery area

Retail giant Amazon has put an application in to expand its drone delivery service to cover an entire town where it has been trialling the tech.

The US company announced last January that Darlington would be its test centre in the UK, marking the first time Prime Air had operated outside the USA.

It started a "limited" number of flights in Febraury, allowing customers within a 7.5 mile radius of its County Durham site to have certain items delivered by drone.

After more than 500 flights and deliveries, the firm said it is now seeking approval from the Civil Aviation Authority to cover the whole of Darlington.

Vice president of Prime Air David Carbon said Amazon was expecting to get permission "very soon", with the ultimate aim of expanding the service to the whole of the UK.

Eligible customers in Darlington are currently able to receive their items within two hours, as long as they have a garden, yard, or driveway, the package weighs less than 5lb and it can fit inside a large shoebox.

Staff at the site said their best delivery time so far is 39 minutes.

Carbon said the drones help keep "people off the road".

"There's lots of advantages that come with the drone, but most importantly for our customers, we've never had a customer say 'send my package slower'. Speed is always critical."

He admitted there had been "some incidents" but claimed "its not a percentage that is high at all".

An investigation was launched in July when a drone crashed into a garden in Darlington .

The company said no-one was injured and its initial assessment was that an object extending above the roof of a moving vehicle came into contact with the drone.

A spokesperson claimed "the drone responded as designed and came safely to the ground".

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